Setback for locals as 1,000 new flats set to get go-ahead
CONTROVERSIAL plans to build almost 1,000 new flats in Digbeth could get the goahead this week.
Birmingham City Council’s planning committee is due to consider an application to demolish existing buildings on the former Bull Ring Trading Estate site to make way for flats up to 30 storeys in height.
But the plans for the £350 million Stone Yard scheme have met with massive opposition from busineses and current residents who fear for the character and future of the historic Birmingham quarter.
The project by Court Collaboration, designed by Glancy Nicholls architects, has been the subject of three petitions signed by more than 1,300 people. It would sit between Green Street and Deritend High Street, across from the historic Custard Factory.
The application was previously submitted in 2019 but following comments from the city council’s design review panel, amendments have now been made.
The current plans include seven buildings which will contain 995 one- and two-bed apartments, and there are plans for a boulevard area and shop space.
The development would include 70 car parking spaces.
But critics say there are “too many” one- and two-bed apartments planned for the high street, and that larger apartments suitable for families are needed.
Others say the area lacks public services such as GPs, nurseries, dentists and play areas. They fear many young people who work in the area will not be able to afford the flats, and the development will benefit only the developers or foreign investors.
Other concerns about the design include that it is “excessive”, and an “over-development” of the site, and will “overshadow” the neighbouring Digbeth/Deritend Conservation Area.
But despite the concerns council planning officers have recommended the plans for approval this Thursday, saying 10 per cent of the private rented flats should be ‘‘affordable’’.
Officers state: “In principle, redevelopment of this underused, partlybrownfield city centre site for residential-led mixed use development is consistent with the land use policies within the Birmingham Development
Plan and emerging Rea Valley Urban Quarter supplementary planning document.
“In addition, a tall building situated opposite the Custard Factory quarter would act as a visual marker for the significant location and is appropriate in this location.
“Furthermore, the design of the scheme has been amended to address concerns raised by the city council’s design review panel and local residents. I therefore consider that the revised scheme is acceptable subject to completion of a suitable legal agreement and safeguarding conditions.”
One of the main objectors to the plans has been Bennie Gray, former owner and developer of the Custard Factory and current owner of Devonshire House. He warned Digbeth could now become the next Covent
Garden in London where the area’s artists and young entrepreneurs are driven out in favour of big business and developers.
Mr Gray said: “It would be such a tragedy if all of the interest and energy and creativity and the unpredictability and the texture which has been generated by the Custard Factory and other people in Digbeth over the last 20 years were to be allowed to turn into just a corporate business with spiralling, soaring land values, as a result of which the people who created the interest in the first place are going to be edged out.
“What still has the potential to be a very distinctive, attractive, historic, creative quarter will have its mojo stolen if this sort of thing goes on. This is a very strong example of exactly what we don’t need. It will cast a dark cloud.”